Solid Wood Garage Door...

[cburnscrx]

I am going to refinish two single car solid wood garage doors. Right now they're painted, but I use that term loosely, as the paint is peeling off in chunks. I really want to clean them up and varnish (poly, clear, whatever) and call it a day. What would everybody recommend for getting the old paint off? The other trick to this equation is I really don't want to take the doors down. Maybe that works, maybe it doesn't? Thoughts, suggestions? I've heard of putting marine grade finish on the doors, but I have heard others say don't? I really don't want to paint them, because at that point I am getting rid of them and installing new fiberglass doors with windows.

*Anybody ever added windows to solid wood garage doors after the fact?

 

[jstroede]

What kind of wood doors are they? Pictures would help.

John

 

[deter]

grab some paint stripper and start a section. See what it looks like. You may find that the original paint/primer is pretty well soaked into the wood. Do you know what kind of wood they are made of?

 

[cburnscrx]

No idea what kind of wood, but I can say others in the neighborhood have stained their doors and they look pretty good. Unfortunately I don't really live in a DIY neighborhood, so even if I went over to ask, the answer is going to be...we paid so and so x $ to do it, we didn't want to mess with it.

The paint is peeling in enough spots, I can get it down to bare wood with very, very light pressure with a putty knife. On the main part of the panel, I think cardboard could strip it. haha

 

[jstroede]

Well part of why I asked was that a lot of the older wood doors weren't exactly made out of premium wood, and a lot of them even used composite wood panels, if they are that type. They were meant to be basically paint grade only.

Also, be aware of older doors and lead paint.

John

 

[cburnscrx]

Well part of why I asked was that a lot of the older wood doors weren't exactly made out of premium wood, and a lot of them even used composite wood panels, if they are that type. They were meant to be basically paint grade only.

Also, be aware of older doors and lead paint.

John

Ah, good point. I can say the house was built in 1987, so I should be pretty clear of lead paint. I'll try to post some pictures here shortly. I've pretty much decided to strip and stain it just working on how.

 

[4xdog]

Photos would be nice. I'm in a similar position with my solid wood doors from 1937 and looking for ideas.